Portable barbecue grills have long been popular for camping and picnicing. Such portable barbecues are different from the barbecues used for backyard or patio cooking in that they must be light weight and easy to assemble and disassemble. Additionally, such portable barbecues must be inexpensive. While willing to make a substantial investment for a unit that will be used at home, the consumer is reluctant to expend large amounts of money for a portable unit to be used at the camp grounds or picnic areas. Many portable barbecues require tools for assembly and disassembly but the requisite tools are not always available at a picnic or camping site. Furthermore, the use of nuts and bolts, screws or other removable fasteners to assemble portable barbecue grills as has been used in the prior art presents problems. In addition to the rather bothersome aspect of having to assemble a portable barbecue by means of such fasteners, it is quite likely that one of such necessary fasteners may become lost while picnicing or camping.
Bedol U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,705 does show a portable barbecue which may be assembled by the consumer without the use of any tools or removable fasteners. However, the Bedol barbecue does have a number of rivets or weldments which must increase the cost of manufacture and can detrimentally affect the ease of assembly and disassembly. On the Bedol barbecue there are clips which are shown to be riveted to the bottom of the barbecue bowl for retaining the legs. The grid supporting brackets are secured to the sides of the bowl by means of keyed slots in the brackets cooperating with studs which are either riveted to or welded to the inside of the bowl. In addition to the inherent cost disadvantages of a structure such as the Bedol barbecue, the rivet assemblies, particularly the bracket supporting studs, present problems to the user. Use of a barbecue results in considerable deposits of grease and carbonizatious material. When such materials are deposited about a keyed slot and stud structure as is used in the Bedol barbecue, they can make disassembly or reassembly of the components extremely difficult.